Voicemail in Asterisk

Voicemail systems allow callers to leave messages for subscribers of the system. Although this type of communication is not as popular as it was a couple of decades ago, it can still be found in some corporate and home environments. Asterisk features a voicemail system called Comedian Mail. Some of the more important features of this system are:

• password-protected voicemail boxes
• email notification of voicemail, with the option of attaching the voicemail file
• default or custom greetings
• voicemail forwarding
• visual message waiting indicator (flashing light or stuttered dialtone) for the subscriber’s phone
• the capability to associate phones with multiple mailboxes
• group voicemail (voicemail broadcast)

Voicemails are configured using the /etc/asterisk/voicemail.conf file, so create an empty file using the touch command:

touch /etc/asterisk/voicemail.conf